Perry Peddling the Mythological Texas

The manner of a man’s arriving is not without consequence. Tom Enders, the
German-born and American-educated head of Airbus, the European aircraft
giant, likes to do it by parachute, if it is an open-air event. People
don’t always remember what he says, but they sure remember how he got
there.

Of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, it could be said that he parachuted into the
race for the Republican presidential nomination. The manner of his entry
will be remembered, as it was meant to be.

Perry orchestrated a drum roll of media speculation, leading up to his
announcement. He assessed, contemplated, debated, discussed, examined,
explored and weighed entry. The media followed: might he, should he, would
he?

The drum roll, fed by leaks, grew louder as the declared candidates
traveled to Iowa for a debate and straw poll. Then Perry, with an
announcement in South Carolina, jumped and precision-landed on the parade
in Iowa.

Poor Michele Bachmann, left like a performing dolphin that has had its
fish snatched away. She had won the straw poll, deserved a few hours of
party adulation and had her joy cut by this man, who dropped in from the
West, all swagger and handshakes.

Perry hit the ground campaigning, when she was hoping to savor a victory
moment or two. Those famed southern manners don’t extend into Texas
politics. Ask fellow Texan, Kay Bailey Hutchison. He crushed her in a
Republican primary in Texas.

In Perry’s political lexicon Texas, and things Texan, are at once policy,
ideology and creed. But Perry’s Texas is not all of Texas, with its
alluring geographical and social diversity. It is the Texas of the
caricature — of barbecue, boots, swagger and can-do. It is not the Texas
of artists in Austin, of the symphony in Houston, ballet in Dallas or jazz
in San Antonio.

It is an inauthentic Texas, minted not on the ranches and the oil rigs,
nor the ugly, sprawling, low-income housing that surrounds the bustling
cities – a testament to an increasing chasm between rich and poor. It is
not the place where schools are failing, the prisons are overflowing, and
the execution rate is the highest in the advanced world.

Perry’s projection of Texas, which he sees as a template for the rest of
the United States, is as inauthentic as tumbleweed — an invasive species
from Russia. Perry’s Texas was created in novels, honed in Hollywood and is
part of the myth that Texas and Texans are imbued with qualities denied to
lesser breeds beyond the Lone Star State.

The problem with believing in myth, and elevating it to the the standing
of principle, is that myth is flexible and can be adjusted to reality.
Ergo the early revelation that Perry is happy to disavow difficult things,
like global warming. He says that there is a list of scientists, growing
almost daily, that say global warming is not the result of human activity.
This is cunning. It disavows responsibility without having to deny the
evidence. While the heads of most advanced governments worry about the
impact of greenhouse gases, a President Perry will not have to.

Perry has also laid down his marker as a man of faith, or at least a man
of public piety. He might want to note that the two most publicly
religious presidents of recent times, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush,
left office in low esteem and are not faring well in the first books of
history. He may want to ponder why the Founding Fathers were so anxious to
separate church and state.

Perry’s political barbecue sauce, such as berating the Federal Reserve,
may be the precursor to a string of tired, old political nonsenses, like
returning to the gold standard; quitting the United Nations; and
abrogating treaties, in the belief that every commitment abroad is an
infringement of sovereignty.

Perry has made a dramatic entry. Now we wait in trepidation; even George
W. Bush’s people are alarmed. Are we to be shown the real Texas, at the
same time proud and flawed, or the synthetic one, doctored for political
effect? — For the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate

Comments

I agree with the Perry analysis, but all candidates promote myths about themselves. For President Obama, it was the myth that a "community organizer" must be all good, will fix the economy and will close that evil Guantanamo prison. BHO will need a new myth to do battle with whatever Republican myth is ultimately nominated.

From: Ron Montgomery
Before I respond to folks such as yourself who write about Texas and Texas
politicians, I always look into their background and I see you are sort of a
self made fellow and you have are the publisher of the Energy Daily. Being a
chemical engineer and having worked in the oil patch for many years, we have
that in common. I also read your blog about the riots and the irony of the
poor and idle in the UK running wild despite there being cared to extremes
over the years. I will comment on this more in a minute. Also, it seems you
are a successful and self made person boot strapping your self from Rhodesia
and on. We and Rick Perry have that also in common.
I was a bit mystified by your article taking Rick Perry to task for a
variety of press grand standing and unauthentic blustering representations
of Texas. I am just super curious about three things:
1. Does Perry's style stick in your craw because it is working or do you
really, really think he is a charlatan and does not represent Texas,
just a politico imitating Texans. I was especially taken at the things you say he
is faking and blustering about like: global warming caused by humans,
withdrawing from the UN, berating Ben Bernanke, etc. ; all, supposedly old
tired aphorisms that have no meaning according to you. Perhaps, it would
disturb you to know that most Texans find these "Old Tired Issues" not
to be so old or tired as you might think. Indeed most Texans would cheer at
the US leaving the UN or at the very least drastically reducing our funding and
sending the UN building to Croatia or perhaps, the UK. Also, Global
Warming is by most Texans perceived to be a trumped up plot by folks like and
those who work for PBS to aid the Indians and Chinese Communists at our expense;
and, worse a liberal progressive means to tax the hell out of the
population so the money can be distributed to the very same people you reviled for
rioting in London. It is pretty clear we at least agree that giving
money to young perfectly healthy ne'er do wells is not a good solution to youth
pulling itself up by the bootstraps. I personally agree with Franklin's
view to whit: "I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of
doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or
driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were
made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course
became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more
they did for themselves, and became richer."Perhaps. Mr. Franklin, you,
and I are on the same page. Finally as to monetizing the debt as Mr. Obama and
his willing henchman Bernanke are doing; well it is truly a form of
treason in that it is an attempt to destroy the well being and solvency of our
currency. Really and truly Mr. King most Texans view the Federal Reserve
Board as traitors to the common man and wild eyed communists working
not in the peoples interest. I submit that most of us in the heartland of the US
also agree with me. Perry's remarks are not out of line with the broad
brush of Texan beliefs.
2. As to your claims of "Alluring Social Diversity" and how Texas is just
a bundle of liberal minded folks going to the symphony and opera and
listening to music in Austin and Jazz in San Antonio. Yes these activities
occur but most of us are raising families and working our asses off to
keep up with taxation without representation and the near if not in fact
depression. Also, if you look closer at these places we are being over run
by illegal immigrants who exacerbate that disparaging remark you made
about "sprawling low-income housing around the bustling cities". Indeed we
have our poor and fortunately unlike your well heeled welfare liberals in
London have not yet turned to mob violence. I am amazed you are so damn
ignorant about the Texas psyche have not worked or walked amongst many
Texans or you would not be so ignorant as to make these stupid
representations that so are in conflict the majority thinking here.
3. Finally, Perry's avowed faith in God is a traditional position most of
us in Texas agree with and most folks in Texas including that burgeoning
Hispanic population believe in God and the Scriptures. Heck it is even
endorsed by the Government it is even right their on our Money. I realize
for a retread UK kind of guys this galls the notion of how people
should be; but, really I doubt that an atheist could get elected in Texas. As to your
remarks about Jimmy Carter and Bush not faring well in the history books
that was not due to their belief in God it was due to their mistakes. Yes
Bush made mistakes; however he damn sure looks good compared to the
idiot in the White House now. At least he had the spine to do some thing; Obama is
fiddling while Rome burns and is doing ti at Martha's Vineyard no less.
4. Finally as to the Gold Standard, I truly think we would be better off
now if our currency was a tad more stable. Gold would not be so high if
Obama had not wasted trillions on nothing.
In conclusion I just think you do not get it about Texas and what we really
think. Your ideas about us are clearly founded only at thinking we are like
folks in the Northeast or the UK. perhaps you should travel around a bit and
really talk to Texans (outside of Austin and at the Ballet and Opera).
Really your article shows you do not understand a thing about what we are
thinking!

Ron, try reading the article next time you wish to comment. In any case, among Ron's many confusions, many middle class citizens enjoy the arts such as orchestras and jazz, even in Texas. Although we have seen certain healthcare cost increases, federal tax rates remain low for Ron, and Pres Obama's desired increases focus on higher paid workers. Yee ha.

White House Chronicle on Social

Thinking back on Valentine’s Days past, there is one which was not marked by flowers, chocolate and champagne. But there was love; total, absolute love. The purest love money can buy: Yes, money did change hands. It was Feb. 14, 1983. My wife Linda Gasparello, although it was before we married, and I lived in […]

I present to you the strange case of Elon Musk. Whatever he does, his detractors, or at least his minimizers, seem to control the narrative. When his Falcon Heavy rocket — the largest and most sophisticated flying today — blasted into space on Feb. 6, there should have been a national outpouring of unabated joy. […]

Nicholas von Hoffman, who has died at the age of 88, streaked across the journalistic sky in the 1970s like a comet. From the pages of The Washington Post, he shined in a way that no journalist had done on any paper since H.L. Mencken in The Baltimore Sun in the early 20th Century. Nick, […]

The Mound Builders of Georgia On a January day at the Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Ga., a hiker ambles up the Great Temple Mound, a flat-topped, earthen ceremonial structure built by the Mississippians around 900-1100 AD. Just as the Scottish explorer Joseph Thompson described Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1887, the mound is “entirely suggestive of […]